Abuja — As the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues its ding-dong cum hide-and-seek over former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar's registration in the party, his former party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said yesterday that, by his defection, the former vice-president may have hit the last nail on his coffin politically.

The national publicity secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this when he led some leaders of the party on a courtesy call to LEADERSHIP at its corporate headquarters in Abuja.

But in his reaction, the director of media, Atiku Abubakar campaign organisation, Malam Garba Shehu, said, "This cannot be the case. On the contrary, this is day break for Atiku and Nigeria. Have you not seen our campaign slogan? 'Better Dey Come.'

"This country is yearning for a leader like Atiku, so this is his time. I am hopeful Lai will soon change his mind and join our campaign."

Mohammed, chatting with a team of editors, said that the party was not surprised at Atiku's defection to the PDP recently. When, in 2008, Atiku visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his Ota farm residence, he said, the party had the premonition that it was only a matter of time before Atiku staged a walk back to the PDP.

He revealed that the Ota farm visit was the root cause of the disaffection between the ACN and Atiku, noting that it was highly disappointed by that act as Atiku never informed any of the party's members of the visit and further refused to heed the advice to formally apologise to Nigerians as advised by the ACN when it became apparent that he had engaged in a political blunder. He said the party, however, was not surprised at Atiku's latest action as it would have been shocked if Atiku did not visit Obasanjo ab initio.

"Today, if he did not visit Obasanjo before defecting to the PDP, I tell you, he woud have been the most credible candidate in this 2011 election. Atiku has done more injury to himself," he said.

"For a man who fought to clear his name under Obasanjo, that was accused of every allegation while in office, a man whom Obasanjo woke up one morning and said he had been deposed as the vice-president, having removed all security operatives attached to him, but for the then AC, civil society group and the press who fought Obasanjo to a standstill, declaring that Obasanjo had no powers to that effect.

"Many pronou-ncements that created the space for political participation can be attributed to Atiku as he fought the PDP and the INEC up to the apex court to get the declaration that the NEC lacked the powers to disqualify candidates in an election.

"He only devalued himself by returning to the PDP. The fact that he fought the PDP right to the Supreme Court only for him to return to the party's fold only put him in bad light. Infact he has done more injury to himself and he may never recover from it politically', Alh Lai Mohammed said.

On why merger talks between the AC and the CPC collapsed, the ACN chieftain attributed it to General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), saying the former head of state, did not believe in merging especially when it was not on his terms. He stated that while the CPC believed it would go the whole hog in the merger , Buhari did not share in the vision and hence the collapse of the merger.

Expressing fears over the INEC's ability to conduct credible elections in 2011, the ACN chieftain said even though it was ready for the January 2011 poll, it was not really convinced that a new voter register would be ready before taking into consideration the time line for the election and the fact that logistics for the exercise is still hanging in the balance.

The national publicity secretary of the ACN advised the electoral commission to approach the National Assembly for a suspension of the implementation of the 2010 Electoral Act till March 2011 so that it would have sufficient time to conduct a most credible election after a clean voter register must have been established.

Mohammed, who said he and his team were on a tour of media houses to intimate them of developments and state of affairs in the party, refuted media reports suggesting that Ribadu was being considered for the party's candidacy come 2011, saying that Ribadu was yet to join the party, more so that primaries would be held to elect the ACN's flag bearer in 2011.

While welcoming Mohammed and his team to its headquarters, the editor of LEADERSHIP, Ali. M. Ali wished the party well in its endeavor, saying it was amongst the very few parties whose presence has made the country not to drift to a one -party state. He wished the team well.

Those with the national publicity secretary on the visit included Alhaji Abubakar Magaji, Hon Uche Onyeaguocha, Hajiya Hauwa Baba Mohammed and Hajiya hafsat Baba Ahmed.